Even after of silently putting up with their continuous flirting, that horrible feeling was still dwelling within me. I was so distracted by his deep stares that bore through her soul and his smiles that held so much love that we barely got a passing grade on the project. School was nearing its end and so was mine and Amu's friendship. We barely spoke since the project was assigned. Our only conversations revolved around small talk like how my day was or how things were at home. To make it even worse, Nagi hadn't insulted me in a week and didn't even bother to look my way when I would walk by. I was beginning to believe that I really was going to be alone.

For the umpteenth time that week, I walked down the stone path to the school entrance alone. I sighed heavily, releasing the stress that had built up through the day; eventually sighing heavily just wasn't going to cut it anymore. My eyes were focused on the city that resided outside of the school walls when I heard the pounding steps of someone running and the harsh panting that belonged to the runner. My eyes grew wide and my heart soared with some form of hope when I caught sight of who it was. His deep brown eyes growing closer as his position inched quickly to mine. "Rima!" his voice bounced off the trees that lined the pathway, I felt my heart drop when he said my name. It had felt like an eternity since I heard it from his intoxicating voice. He stopped in front of me, bending over and heaving, attempting to say something. "I-I need a f-favor," He said through pants.

A favor? I internally questioned. He comes out of nowhere, we haven't talked for a week and he wants a favor out of me. It better be worth my while, I whined to myself. "What kind of favor?" I crossed my arms and waited for a response.

"I need you to ask Amu something," he said with such ease, his eyes glazed over as if he was imagining her standing in front of him instead of me. I felt the numbness of that lonely feeling again; it was always about her nowadays, the way her eyes sparkled when they hit the sun or the way her smile could brighten up a room.

"What do I need to ask her?" I questioned, my arms still crossed.

"Well.. umm," Nagihiko scratched the back of his head like he was delaying something. A hint of red grew at his cheeks as he continued to stumble over his words.

"Spit it out already, I don't have all day." I said harshly, hoping that would scare him off so I wouldn't have to deal him anymore.

"C-could you ask Amu out for me?" I felt as if those very words sucked the life out of me, my jaw was gaped and my face in a paralyzed state of shock. I felt like running home and crying, the horrible feeling was reaching its brink; and it was starting to overflow. But instead of acting like an overemotional preteen girl, I took a deep breath and put on a convincing smile.

"Sure I'll do it," I happily smiled although I was decaying on the inside.

"Thanks, I owe you one." He waved goodbye as if nothing even happened. I stood motionless as I watched him vanish on the horizon. Several silent tears rolled down my cheeks as my last sparkle of hope vanished in the dark pit of depression that had finally spilled over the edge.

I walked home in silence, thinking of what I was going to say to Amu. I prayed with all my might that she would say no or that she didn't feel that way about him. Even after the whole epidemic went down, I still couldn't figure out what emotion was welling up inside of me. It was bad enough I had the screaming and yelling to come home to, now I had to find a way to ask Amu out for Nagihiko.

I spent the rest of the night in silence, not sound came out of my lips as I finished my homework. I sat criss cross on my orange comforter and waited for sleep to claw at my eyes but it never came. I felt the bags under my eyes grow heavy as I watched the starry night sky turn to the crisp bright blue morning one. You would think I had lost my voice by how long I hadn't spoken.

"Rima, are you OK?" Amu asked as I entered the classroom, concern obvious in her large honey eyes.

"Yeah, I'm alright. I just had some trouble going to sleep last night." My voice was dead, lifeless.

"Are you sure that you're ok, you really don't look it." Nagihiko butted in, signaling at me with a wink that my favor was still in play.

"Yeha, I'm sure." I reassured Amu with a quick smile then moved on the main priority. "Hey Amu, can I talk to you in the hallway real quick?"

"I don't see why not," She replied then went out into the hallway to wait for me, Nagi gave me a thumbs up as I walked out the door.

"What's up?" she asked curiously.

"Well Nagi came and talked to me the other day and he wanted me to ask you something." I said; my voice small and quiet.

"Ask away,"

I took a deep breath and put my smile on, "Nagi wants to go out with you, what do you say?" My eyes grew wide with disbelief; I couldn't believe that those very words left my lips so easily. We both stood in silence for about five minutes, me patiently waiting for Amu to give an answer.

"No."

"Ok, I'll go tell him you said yes." I said without thinking, my mind was prepared for her saying yes that I hadn't really bothered to listen.

"Rima, I said no." Her stern word stopped me in my tracks.

"Rima, I said no." Amu's stern words stopped me dead in my tracks. I didn't know whether to feel relieved that she didn't want him or scared of what he would say because she said no.

"Why?" I had to find out why; they clearly looked happy together, so why would she say no.

"I don't feel the same way about him." I was still confused, wasn't she happy around him, she made him happy, how could she not feel the same way.

"But you make him happy, aren't you happy when you're with him?" I had to know, even if I wasn't going to win the silent battle I still had to know how she felt about him, even if it hurt.

"He does make me happy," hearing those words almost killed me, she was my best friend, and she was watching me wither away right in front of her. "But I don't like him like that, I like someone else." She said clearly referring to the blue-haired cat that often made her blush.

"I think I forgot something in outside, I'll be right back." I had to get away; my knees were crumbling underneath me like a building that had just been put out of its misery. I bolted down the hallway and the stairs, I closed my eyes tightly as I ran not knowing where I was running or where I would end up, at this point I didn't care. I opened my eyes and found myself surrounded by vivid flowers and lush greenery; somehow I had ended up in the Royal Garden. I leaned up against a wall and slid down it weakly. I pulled myself into my defense mechanism; however, my ball formation wasn't going to protect me from the reality of my situation. I felt wet hot tears uncontrollably roll down my face. The bottled up poisonous emotion that had rotted inside me for the past few days had finally been sucked out through tears and heavy sobs. I didn't care that I was missing class, I didn't care that my grades were slipping because of everything, I felt the lonely numb feeling running through my veins, taking over, as I sat still on the floor like a ragdoll.

"Rima!" I felt as if I had gotten struck by lightning. The last thing I needed was him interfering with my depressed state. It was all his fault, I didn't want him to be the hero, I didn't need a knight in shining armor to pull me out of the darkness that engulfed me, but something told me not to turn him away. I heard his footsteps coming closer, I shut my eyes tightly and squeezed myself into my ball position again; I didn't want to hear what he had to say. "There you are, come on let's get back to class."

"No," my voice was muffled by my clothes.

"Why not?" I heard his footsteps stop inches in front of me.

"I don't want to," I whimpered, trying to hide the fact that I was crying.

"That's not a good answer," I could tell that he put his hands at hips thinking that it would lure me out of my ball. "Look at me." He said sternly.

"no," I replied in a flat tone.

"Rima," he started to sound angry now, "look at me." I knew that he wasn't going to leave me alone if I didn't give him the satisfaction of at least glancing at him. I slowly lifted my head out of my ball position. I knew that my face was puffed up and red from crying and that there were tears involuntarily streaming down my face still. I glanced up noticing that his angry face turned to shocked, "Rima, what happened?" he sure expected a lot out of me didn't he.

"I looked at you, happy now? Can you leave?" I grumbled.

"I'm not going to leave until you tell me what's wrong." He said sitting down on the ice cold flooring that made up the Royal Garden. I might as well just raise my white flag now, this battle was over. I felt like a wounded warrior while my enemy watched me suffer.

"It's all your fault!" I felt the blood rush to my head as I began to suck even more poison out. "You started talking to her and everything went downhill from there. The way you look at her so lovingly, the way you smile at everything she does, you had no idea how I felt about it. I was left out, all alone with no one to talk to or insult, you didn't even bother looking at me. Why her, she's my best friend, I don't want to hate her, but why her, why not me?" I glanced up at him with my golden tear strewn eyes. His eyes grew wide with even more shock.

"I had no idea," he muttered under his breath.

"Of course you had no idea, you never even had a clue did you?" I asked him, anger taking over my expression. He shook his head quietly. "I thought so." I stood up and started to walk away when he grabbed my arm.

"Wait, where are you going?" he asked still tightly holding my arm.

"Away from you," I tried to shake him off but it did nothing against his strong stature. Instead he grabbed my other arm and pulled me into a forced hug. "Let me go! It's bad enough that you broke my heart, I don't need it crushed too." He let me go at the sound of my voice.

"Alright, you can leave." I began to turn on my heel and walk out, "on one condition."

"And what would that be?"

"Tell me why you're upset."

"I already did," I started heading for the door when he magically appeared in front of me.

"No, you explained to me why you were upset, you never told me." Did he have to be a brat about this? We stood in silence for several minutes as I thought about what I was going to say or do. I took one small step and closed my eyes as I pressed my soft lips against his.

"I love you, that's why." I broke away from him and started to walk away, leaving him standing dumbstruck and frozen. I had sucked all the poison out of my system; I had finally pulled myself out of the dark abyss that I thought had engulfed me forever.

"Rima, wait!"

"What? I already told you w-" My voice was muffled by a kiss. I felt like melting into his arms as they wrapped around me, I could've died and had no regrets about anything. "What was that for?" I pulled away from him.

"I love you too," his deep brown eyes looked honest but something told me he wasn't completely truthful.

"No you don't," his luxurious eyes went from warm to ice cold. "but you could, eventually." I gave him one last kiss, and walked away.

"What was that for?" he called after me.

"You owed me one, remember." I smiled back at him as walked out of garden as if nothing ever happened.